Windsurf vs Kiro
A feature-by-feature comparison of Windsurf and Kiro across 7 capability categories.
Modalities — Windsurf Wins
| Feature | Windsurf | Kiro |
|---|---|---|
Text Input | Yes. Chat and inline prompting throughout the editor. | Yes, requires free plan. Prompts become specs (requirements, design, tasks) then implementation. |
Image Upload / Vision | Yes. Paste screenshots and mockups into the chat as context. | Partial. Homepage mentions multimodal inputs and Figma as context. A general image-upload vision API was not separately documented. |
Image Generation | No. Does not generate still images. | No. A coding agent, not an image model. |
Voice Mode | No. No voice interface. | No. No conversational voice loop is documented. |
Video Understanding | No. Does not analyse existing video. | No. Not a video-analysis product. |
Video Generation | No. Not a video generation product. | No. Not a video generation product. |
File Upload (PDF, DOCX) | Yes. Reads files from the open workspace and accepts attachments. | Yes, requires free plan. Works on local workspaces and, on the web, GitHub/GitLab repos in cloud sandboxes. |
Code Execution | Yes. Cascade runs terminal commands and tests as part of an agentic loop. | Yes, requires free plan. Agents implement, test, and can run headless in CI. Web sessions run in isolated sandboxes. |
Audio Input | No. No audio input. | No. No audio-file input is documented. |
Canvas / Artifact Editor | Yes. The editor pane is the shared surface. | Unknown. Overlapping columns disagreed (partial vs yes); left unverified rather than copying a no. |
Screen Sharing / Computer Use | No. Operates on the codebase and terminal, not the screen. | No. No computer-use desktop takeover is documented. Agents edit the workspace. |
Memory & Context — Tie
| Feature | Windsurf | Kiro |
|---|---|---|
Persistent Memory | Yes. Memories persist project context across sessions. | Yes, requires free plan. Steering files (.kiro/steering/, ~/.kiro/steering/, AGENTS.md) persist conventions across sessions and surfaces. |
Large Context Window | Partial. Indexes the whole repository; the usable window depends on the selected model. | Unknown. Uses multiple FMs via Bedrock/Auto. No token window is published on the pricing page. |
Custom Instructions | Yes. Workspace rules files steer the assistant per project. | Yes, requires free plan. Steering markdown (always / fileMatch / manual) plus AGENTS.md. |
Conversation History | Yes. Cascade conversations are saved per workspace. | Yes, requires free plan. IDE, CLI, web, and Crew keep sessions. Web sandboxes keep running after you close the laptop. |
Integrations — Kiro Wins
| Feature | Windsurf | Kiro |
|---|---|---|
Web Search / Browsing | Yes. Can fetch documentation and web results as context. | Unknown. MCP can pull tools; a first-party live-web search toggle was not confirmed. |
Plugins / Extensions | Partial. MCP servers extend it, rather than a first-party plugin marketplace. | Yes, requires free plan. MCP, Agent Client Protocol, Open VSX extensions, Skills.md, and 500+ CLI tools. |
API Access | No. An IDE product, not an API. | Partial. Headless CLI in CI/CD and ACP into other IDEs. That is not a public REST generate API. |
Zapier Integration | Unknown. Not confirmed either way. | Unknown. No first-party Zapier app was checked. |
Custom GPTs / Bots | Partial. Workflows and rules rather than shareable custom agents. | Yes, requires free plan. Custom agents plus steering; ACP into other tools. Kiro Crew is the open-source coordinator. |
Real-time Collaboration | Unknown. Not confirmed either way. | Partial. Team billing and shared steering. Live multiplayer cursors were not documented. |
Live Social Data Integration | No. Not a live social-firehose product. | |
Live Citation Mapping | No. Not a cited-search product. |
Developer — Tie
| Feature | Windsurf | Kiro |
|---|---|---|
Function Calling | Yes. Tool calling drives the agentic editing loop. | Yes, requires free plan. Agents take actions (implement, test, hooks, MCP tools), not chat-only replies. |
Streaming Responses | Yes. Responses stream into the editor as they are produced. | Unknown. Token streaming is not documented as an API contract. |
Fine-Tuning | No. No custom model training. | No. You pick models (Auto, Claude, GPT, open-weight). No custom-weight training product. |
Embeddings API | No. No embeddings endpoint. | No. Not an embeddings API. |
Structured Output (JSON) | No. Not a language model, so this does not apply. | Partial. Specs and property-based tests are structured artifacts. Not a JSON-schema chat API. |
Reasoning / Thinking Mode | Yes. Available through the frontier models it can be pointed at. | Unknown. Overlapping columns disagreed (yes vs partial); left unverified rather than copying a no. |
Local Execution | Yes, requires free plan. IDE and Crew run on your machine; web sandboxes are cloud. Models are hosted. | |
Open Weights | Partial. You can select open-weight models (Qwen, DeepSeek, MiniMax, GLM). The Kiro product itself is not an open-weight release except Crew. | |
Multi-Agent Orchestration | Yes, requires free plan. Parallel agents implement tasks; hooks fire on IDE events; Crew coordinates tools. |
Platforms — Kiro Wins
| Feature | Windsurf | Kiro |
|---|---|---|
Web App | No. Desktop editor only. | Yes, requires plus plan. Kiro on the web (preview) is for paid Pro+ tiers; sandboxes keep running in the cloud. |
iOS App | No. No native mobile app; the web app runs in a mobile browser. | Yes, requires plus plan. Homepage: sign in on mobile with a paid account. Store listing OS split was not opened this round; Google/Apple both implied by “mobile app”. |
Android App | No. No native mobile app; the web app runs in a mobile browser. | Unknown. A mobile app is documented; Android vs iOS split was not confirmed on a store page. |
Desktop App | Yes. A desktop IDE, forked from VS Code. | Yes, requires free plan. Downloadable IDE for the OS; Open VSX + VS Code settings import. |
Chrome Extension | No. No official browser extension. | No. Not distributed as a Chrome extension. |
Privacy — Windsurf Wins
| Feature | Windsurf | Kiro |
|---|---|---|
GDPR Compliant | Yes. Codeium publishes a DPA and serves EU customers. | Unknown. Needs an AWS DPA read for Kiro specifically. |
Opt Out of Data Training | Yes. Zero-data-retention mode is available; enterprise plans do not train on your code. | Unknown. Enterprise privacy is advertised; a consumer training opt-out toggle was not checked. |
Enterprise Privacy Mode | Yes, requires enterprise plan. Self-hosted and VPC deployment options for enterprise. | Yes, requires enterprise plan. IAM, SSO, usage dashboards, IP indemnity, GovCloud, centralized billing. |
Workspaces — Tie
| Feature | Windsurf | Kiro |
|---|---|---|
Projects / Folders | Yes. Organised by workspace. | Yes, requires free plan. Workspace .kiro/specs and steering; Crew is a persistent local workspace. |